Men's Basketball

Ron Verlin Named Pacific Men's Basketball Head Coach

Stockton, Calif. – University of the Pacific Vice President for External Relations and Athletics Ted Leland has announced the hiring of Ron Verlin as Men's Basketball Head Coach. Verlin becomes the 20th head coach in school history.

Ron has been a part of Pacific Basketball as the Associate Head Coach for the last 19 years, under retiring head coach Bob Thomason. He has been with Coach Thomason for all five NCAA Tournament appearances and the program's seven Big West Conference titles. He helped Coach Thomason and the Tigers to 354 total wins, including 10 seasons with 20 or more wins.

"I am excited that Ron has agreed to take the helm of Pacific Men's Basketball, continuing the momentum the team built this year," said Pacific President Pamela A. Eibeck. "Ron will be able to continue Coach Thomason's remarkable legacy while also bringing his own great ideas and style to our program."

"We are proud to announce that Ron Verlin will become our next head coach of Pacific Basketball," said Leland. "His dedication to this university and ability to lead this program became evident in the past 19 years. It is an exciting time for the basketball program, heading into the West Coast Conference and Ron is just the man to lead us there."

"I couldn't be happier for Ron, the assistant coaches, returning players and boosters," said Thomason. "Ron is the best coach to take Pacific into the WCC. With his work ethic and experience at Pacific and support from the administration to improve men's basketball, Ron will find ways to make Pacific Basketball better. I'm looking forward to watching Pacific Basketball be more exciting and successful."

"Today is an extremely exciting day for my family and me," said Verlin. "I feel very honored and privileged to be the 20th Head Basketball Coach at the University of the Pacific. I am very proud of the history and tradition of Pacific Basketball and feel very fortunate to have worked for and learned from Coach Bob Thomason over the past 19 years. Coach Thomason has been a great friend and mentor. I am proud to be a Tiger and excited to continue my career at Pacific."

"I would like to thank President Eibeck and Dr. Leland for the tremendous opportunity to lead the Tigers. I look forward to returning to our roots in the WCC and continuing to build upon our Pacific Basketball tradition."

"To all the players I have coached and all the coaches I have had the privilege of working along side, thank you for your support. This is a dream come true!"

"Thank you to all the boosters and fans for all your support throughout years. I look forward to building upon your trust and giving you some great basketball games. A special thank you to the late great Fred Mills whose friendship is never forgotten. I am reminded of his words "today is a great day!" Tomorrow we will get right to work and build and increase the Tiger legacy for our school, team, boosters and fans."

As Associate Head Coach, Ron has served as Recruiting Coordinator, recruiting student-athletes from the United States, Europe and Australia. Included among those recruits are 46 All-Big West Conference honorees, four league MVPs and four All-Americans. He has also helped the Tigers focus their academic efforts and helped the team to its 96% graduation rate under Coach Thomason. He has also worked with the defense and helped develop Pacific's post players. He has coaching experience at the high school, junior college and NCAA Division I levels. Using his fundraising skills with the Tigers, he co-founded and established the Pacific Basketball Century Club. The Century Club has raised nearly $1 million for the basketball program since its inception.

Ron came to Pacific from Columbia College where he spent the 1993-94 season as an assistant basketball coach, assistant athletic director and head golf coach. He spent 1991-93 at the University of Nevada as an assistant coach under Len Stevens and also spent two years (1989-91) at Sierra College in Rocklin as an assistant coach. In addition, Verlin served as associate head coach at Christian Brothers High School in Sacramento and Del Oro High School in Loomis.

Verlin has been involved in several summer camps throughout his career. From 1988 to 1992, Verlin was the coach of Cy's Guys basketball club from Sacramento, which finished each year in the top five at the Basketball Congress Invitational. Verlin is a member of the National Association of Basketball Coaches and has coached at the YES Clinics during the NCAA Final Four. He has been a guest speaker at Pete Newell's Big Man's Camp.

A Loomis, Calif. native, Ron attended Del Oro High School in Loomis, Calif. and is 1990 graduate of Sacramento State.

Ron's twin brother, Don, is the head coach at the University of Idaho. He and his wife, Barbie, live in Stockton with their sons Trenton (18) and Nathan (16) and daughter Kelsie (14).